My favorite pasta dish again...

See the chunks of olives and fresh herbs. This was a great vinaigrette for the baby herb mixture!

I have this little quirky thing about me. If I like the flavor of something I will eat it again and again and again. Just ask my family! It drives T. crazy sometimes but one of the advantages of being chief, cook and bottle washer is that they have to eat what I cook...he he he! This is one of those instances. The kids don't care they have been eating their pasta with just butter on it anyway so pretty much this is for me.

Last night though I had bought a mixed box of organic baby herbs for the salad and just made a really light dressing using olive oil, balsamic vinegar, chopped garlic, fresh basil, oregano and salt and pepper. At the last minute I tossed in some chopped kalamata olives. Turned out yummy!

I had some beautiful yellow tomatoes that got added to this delicious pasta dish!

I also made my regular favorite pasta:

Pasta With Fresh Tomato and Basil

1 head of garlic and 2 Tbsp olive oil
3 ripe plum tomatoes (I just use whatever is tasting good right them)
1/3 C fresh basil (chopped)
1 Tbsp capers
1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
1 box of long thin pasta (angel hair, linguine, spaghetti)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

• Peel of most of the paper from around the garlic head. Slice off the pointy top of the garlic. This should expose all of the cloves a bit. Place in an oven proof pan (I use a pie plate). Top with 2 Tbsp of olive oil and coarse salt. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes. Allow to cool then remove the cloves and mash with a fork.
• Dice the tomatoes (if the have a ton of seeds squeeze them out).
• Add the garlic, basil, capers, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
• Let stand for at least 20 minutes.
• Cook pasta.
• Mix sauce with pasta and serve warm or at room temperature. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pasta with a nice slab of garlic bread...does it get much better?

T.'s contribution to all of this was a loaf of amazing garlic bread! He took an Italian baguette and split it. Made some garlic butter using paprika, fresh garlic, garlic powder, fresh parsley, fresh oregano and fresh basil. Smeared it all over the bread and used the broil setting on high in the oven and broiled it until it was nicely brown and crispy!

Perfect meal to end a perfect weekend!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com